Cubit family establishes endowment

Oct. 18, 2009

KALAMAZOO--A fund has been established to strengthen the academic-related services Western Michigan University provides to its student-athletes.

With an initial $50,000 gift, head football coach Bill Cubit and his wife, Nancy, have created the Cubit Family Athletic Endowment Fund for Academic Services. Through the endowment agreement, the couple will establish a permanent fund that makes discretionary monies available for academic services within the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics.

"These young men and women come to Western Michigan University to receive a first-rate education and the effort put forth by the academic services staff on behalf of all our student-athletes is second to none," Cubit says. "I am very proud to be a part of this great institution and feel very lucky that Nancy and I are able to give back. It is the right thing to do."

Cubit has a record of 29-20 with the Broncos and a 20-11 mark in the Mid-American Conference. He became WMU's 14th head football coach Dec. 4, 2004, just before the Broncos embarked on their 100th season of varsity football in 2005.

The Pennsylvania native turned the program around in his first season, bringing the first winning campaign to Kalamazoo since 2000 and setting one of the best one-year turnarounds in Mid-American Conference history.

Previously, Cubit had accumulated 31 years of coaching experience at such institutions as Stanford, Rutgers and Widener universities as well as the universities of Missouri, Florida and Akron. He was a head coach for 16 years at the collegiate and high school levels and an offensive coordinator for seven years at four NCAA Division I schools, including WMU from 1997 to 1999.

"It says a lot about Bill and Nancy and their commitment, not only to the football program, but to each and every one of our student-athletes and the education they receive," WMU Athletic Director Kathy Beauregard says about the Cubits' endowment gift . "We are a family at Western Michigan University, and this gift shows just that."